What is an ADIF file?

ADIF simply stands for "Amateur Data Interchange Format". ADIF is an open standard for exchange of data between ham radio software packages available from different vendors.

Ever since software has become a part of amateur radio, there have been as many data formats as there have been ham radio software programmers. Hams have struggled with converting data among various formats. In early 1996 KK7A promoted the idea of a standard for exchange of ham data, and an internet reflector was set up for discussing such a standard. Ray WF1B and Dennis WN4AZY, publishers of commercial ham radio software, took the best suggestions from this discussion and proposed the Amateur Data Interface Format (ADIF), which Ray introduced as ADIF 1.0 at the 1996 Dayton Hamvention. Within a year, this standard was adopted by most software publishers.

The purpose of ADIF is to provide a standard interchange independent of operating system or programming language for amateur data that will permit easy and direct transfer of data conforming to the standard between various amateur programs as well awards and contest sponsors.